Cecil, the actor who played a sea serpent in the 1960’s television show Beany and Cecil, and who was in fact a professionally-trained sea serpent in private life, died on Tuesday near his home in San Fransisco Bay. He was 58.
His manager, Davey Jones, said the cause was seasickness.
A competent actor with a lispy, fluid voice, Cecil was born Acrochordus Granulatus Zimmerman in 1959. He formally adopted his stage name later that year, after his eponymous television show became popular among pre-schoolers.
Cecil played a good-natured, bumbling character, loved by all who met him but especially by Beany, a squinty, fatherless boy portrayed by Gilbert Gottfried. The on-screen displays of affection did not, however, continue off the set — directors complained that Cecil drank heavily, slurred his lines, and often salivated on his co-stars.
After production on Beany and Cecil ended in 1962, Cecil drifted for a number of years before turning to cruise-ship theater in the early ’70s. His last memorable role was that of the serpent in Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, for Carnival Cruise Lines in 1978.
Cecil was due to reunite with Beany and Uncle Captain on an episode of Matlock in 1994, but the show was pre-empted on its scheduled evening by coverage of the O. J. Simpson Ford Bronco chase. The reunion episode was never aired and is now considered lost.
Cecil is survived by his ex-wife Ness and their six daughters, Hydra.
